The Internet is understandably bogged down with a wide variety of failed ventures. While web hosts and domain registrars have made the process of website creation extremely simple over the years, little has been done to teach webmasters how to transform their domains into places that web surfers want to visit. For any website, the prospect of creating a successful presence depends not only on an attractive product or theme, but also on a solid internet marketing strategy. No matter the niche, a successful website will be intellectually satisfying, visually appealing, highly usable, and easy to find.
An intellectually stimulating website contains high-quality original content that is relevant to the subject matter at hand and presented to appeal to a specific targeted slice of the web. If a website purports to be about fitness and health, its’ visitors will have little interest in reading about the latest-and-greatest in smart phone technology. As difficult as the gap may seem to bridge, visitors are more likely to find these scenario’s more often than websites that have well written, relevant content.
An attractive color scheme can set the mood for a web surfer and may be the difference between a quick stop-and-bounce or an extended stay. A fan page dedicated to the Green Bay Packers would do well to execute a green and gold color scheme as opposed to the wretched Vikings purple because its’ visitors will most likely be Packers fans. Webmasters who succeed in setting the mood for their visitors will do so because they think logically about important factors like content and color, and pay attention to what their visitors are looking for.
Quality content and colors that complement content are important, but these components of a successful website are worthless if visitors cannot use your website. The greatest products in the world will never make a dime if visitors cannot adequately navigate the menu to purchase them. Images and text should always be presented in a way to funnel visitors into taking a certain action such as purchasing a product, subscribing to a newsletter or making a comment. All too often, however, users have difficulty locating the proper places to act. The Internet is a fickle place and if the average user cannot figure out how or where to take action, they will leave to find a website with greater usability.
Perhaps the most crucial component of a successful website is its’ marketing strategy. The most intellectually stimulating, color-appropriate and easy-to-use website on the Internet will go the way of the Dodo bird if nobody can find it, and Internet Marketing exists for the sole purpose of making sure a website can be found. Although it is possible for a single well-disciplined webmaster to make an impact with an efficient marketing plan, entire departments are created for the sole purpose of executing Internet marketing strategies. Search Engine Optimization experts tweak content for perfect keyword density, seeking to rank well in search engines like Google or Bing. Link Builders work tirelessly to acquire quality inbound links from authority websites which act as votes of content-confidence. Paid Search specialists create high-powered pay-per-click campaigns that entice web surfers to click on sponsored links that lead to perfectly manicured landing pages. Social Media guru’s create buzz for products, services or content via hubs like YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter an much more in this growing sector of the web. If executed properly, a sound strategy that makes the most out of these four aspects of Internet marketing will surely be given an opportunity to shine on the first search engine results pages on leading search engines like Google and Bing.
Anyone who seeks to create a successful website that is well-traveled and provides quality information, products or services will quickly find that the prospect entails far more than purchasing a domain and publishing a hastily written chunk of content. Listening to the attitudes, desires and emotions of the visitors a webmaster targets is a sure-fire way to create a website that will stand the test of time online.
Fire. The Wheel. Farming. The Printing Press. Many think of these advances as some of the greatest in human history. Where would we be without fire? Before the wheel was invented, moving anything heavier than one could lift was either impossible or simply not worth the effort. Man would still be hunting and gathering if our ancestors had never learned to farm, and the printing press made literature widely available which increased reading and learning. As powerful as each advance in technology may have been, all pale in comparison to the impact the Internet has had on humanity. From the economy, to crime, to our sense of community, the Internet has changed society so much, so fast, that civilization has had major problems adjusting.
Today, Ecommerce accounts for a massive share of retail sales in every market, and has created entirely new thriving industries. While this benefits Ecommerce businesses, brick-and-mortar stores are tasked with the challenge of staying in business with fewer customers which often results in closures and unemployment. Newspapers are also feeling the heat from lighter internet-based news outlets that are designed to thrive in a 24-hour news cycle, breaking stories as they happen rather than relying on their loyal audience to wait for the morning edition. While newspapers’ websites are updated with breaking news, they haven’t adjusted to an advertising-based business model instead of the subscription-and-advertising-based model they’ve known for over 100 years. Even Network Television behemoths CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX have seen viewership sink like a stone alongside advertising revenue as their audience migrates to on-demand sources of entertainment on the Internet. This is especially unfortunate because much television found online lives on network websites, which means departments within the same companies are competing against each other.
Computer Crime has been a problem since the 70’s in some fashion or form, but criminals began making real strides when the Internet became an integral part of the global financial system. Personal information is stolen every day from financial and credit lending institutions or from personal computers via hacker programs like keyloggers or viruses. When a crime is committed on the Internet, law enforcement agencies must follow protocol which means sorting through mountains of data to track the location of the criminal instead of the crime. Due to obstacles with jurisdiction in foreign nations, law enforcement is continually late to the game in the world of Internet crime, and criminals are always one step ahead. The ability to interact anonymously can bring out the worst in a common man and the Internet is a dangerous place for exactly this reason.
The sudden injection of the Internet into society has shaken a lot of foundations of humanity, but none are more important than how we interact with each other. Man has always thrived on a closely-knit community of family friends for ideas, relationships and a sense of belonging. Since the introduction of Social Media hubs like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, we have ignored the need for personal relationships by retreating to our virtual social profiles where we incessantly update the faceless masses on every aspect of our lives, hoping everyone cares. If our ancestors measured their worth by the people who cared about them, we measure ours by the number of Facebook Friends we have.
Throughout human history, no technological achievement has been as life-altering, or resulted in as much upheaval in so many different facets of our lives as the Internet. As a civilization, humanity has undergone a great many chaotic transitions and endured its share of hardships, but never before has it had to contend so vigorously against a technology that increases the quality of life while, at the same time, threatens the stability we have relied on for our economic stability, safety and close relationships with others throughout our communities.
I know there are specialists in the industry who focus on one specific area of Search Marketing such as Paid Search or Link Building, and they do very well for themselves. I think it’s important to know a lot about your niche in the industry and the experience you gain from focusing on one area is great, but is it going to ultimately be helpful to your career as an Internet Marketer?
Maybe it’s just me, but I like a more well rounded approach to things. I’m interested in all of the facets of Internet Marketing and my hands are plenty bloody with the websites I have worked with through my career. Because I focus on more than one or two specialties, I think I can bring a greater strategy to the table, and it usually ends up working out well for my clients. But there are definitely times I wish I had known more to address a particular, specific problem. If only we could be an authority in everything, right?
My most recent project was for a client I had worked with a year ago during a website relaunch. I had laid out a long-term strategy that he could implement on his own to build a steady reputation, but it required things like Blogging and Link Building which they apparently did not have the time or desire to carry out. My content creation and on-page SEO alone were enough to raise the now useless but entertaining Page Rank 2 points to 3 and bring in enough new customers to actually hire another employee in these difficult economic times. I was pleased with the success we found, but wished more had been done.
A year later, the same client recently contacted me to take on a Paid Search project consisting of re-aligning AdWords campaigns for greater efficiency. I created a campaign just for Broad Match Types, a campaign just for the Content Network and then another campaign for Phrase & Exact Match Types. This is going to give the client greater control, especially if they choose to maintain the account after I leave because it is easier for SE-no’s to make sense of.
One big problem we’re experiencing is very low Quality Score’s, we’re talking 2-3. The problem with 2 is that it just isn’t good enough to even get in the game on most searches. The Ad Copy looks great, bid amounts look good, everything is good and relevant. It’s unfortunate in a lot of ways that these Quality Scores are only going to be increased through landing page optimization. Lots of the terms we’re bidding on aren’t in the content because it wasn’t created at time of launch (by me) but the existing content was optimized. The project is complete but I won’t see the great results I’m looking for unless the content on those pages are tweaked, extended, and new pages created to focus on these groups of search terms. It’s important information and pages the website could use, so what’s the problem?
The problem is that small businesses aren’t always trusting, to say the least. Many small business owners made it to where they are for working hard and taking what they want. I’m not saying business owners are bad people by any means, just that they possess a certain hard-to-satisfy hunger in terms of determination and work ethic. This is great for them but not so good for Search Marketers because as a new technology, people still don’t know that much about what we do or why we do it. When people don’t know about something, they tend to not trust it. There you go! We are difficult, as an industry, to trust.
My point here, if I still have one, is that all parts of Internet Marketing are connected. Paid Search ads lead to Landing Pages which should be relevant to the Paid Search ads, which means the Landing Pages should be SEO’d (?) for greater relevancy. Good SEO pages have excellent inbound links which requires link building, link accrual, blogging, Social Media, so on and so forth. It’s a vicious circle, isn’t it?
My other point here is that I look forward to the day when a good SEO doesn’t have to lower wages to gain the trust of a potential client. Money is always a struggle and it would be great if people understood exactly how important a good SEO is, and exactly what they could bring to your bottom line with total control.
I spend a lot of time on the computer. As an Ecommerce Manager and Internet Marketing (by day and night) I almost always have my laptop on. Nearly all the music I listen to is via Pandora or iTunes, and about 85% of the programming I follow, I watch on Hulu or other television network websites. So, I spend a lot of time on the computer.
Because it can be pretty difficult to track down a good documentary ‘in real life’ I turn to sites like YouTube or Hulu so that I can get my documentary fix. They’re thought-provoking pieces of film that entertain and educate me at the same time! The down side is that, with the exception of the occasional Michael Moore film, documentaries aren’t all that mainstream and thus not too common.
This Sunday morning I found Documentary Heaven, a website with over, 1,000 documentaries, most of which I haven’t even seen. With enough categories to encompass pretty much any interest and a good number of videos in each of those categories, Docmentary Heaven seems like a pretty well rounded out hub for viewing free online documentary movies.
So now it’s time for me to lay back and relax while I watch Growing Up in the Universe with Richard Dawkins!
Over a week has passed since the Search & Social Spring Summit concluded in Tampa, Florida. Like everyone who attended the intimate gathering at the DoubleTree Hotel overlooking Tampa Bay, I’ve returned to work and am working hard to implement the great ideas I took away from the conference. Sure, I took note of a lot more ideas than I’m actually attempting to integrate, but that’s how it should be. We write everything down and think everything is the best idea, and then we go back to work and try to match up the ideas with the reality of our specific situations and environments and make proper determinations as to how well these ideas will really work.
So, what are the things that still make sense to me and the businesses I’m working with, over a week after the end of the conference? Let’s see….
Advertising on Facebook
With over 400 Million users across the world and an advertising platform that allows you to micro target in ways no other platform can even come close to comparing, you’re an idiot if you don’t at least run one ad test on Facebook. Yeah, the social networking juggernaut has been put through the ringer lately in terms of privacy issues, but they still have the single largest, most comprehensive database on the things you like from music, books, food, politics, and so much more.
David Szetela did an excellent job talking about Paid Search on Facebook and suggested that, since the idea is still new, your competition is most likely not participating. This not only means super-focused targeting, but a rather barren playing field which can translate to huge sales at an extremely affordable cost.
Link Building Tactics : Outside The Box
Brian Chappell was one of the speakers during the Advanced Link Building Tactics session, and in my opinion he brought the most to the table in terms of finding new and clever ways to get inbound links to your website. Specifically, there are two methods I’m looking forward to executing.
- Widgets are programs that can live on a website and perform a specific function that would act as a service to a visitor to that website, and thus be a benefit to have on that website. There are a lot of different types of widgets out there. Some can tell you the temperature in the area where the visitor is, others might scroll the latest Tweets from a specified group of Twits. The possibilities are really endless. One thing any good widget has in common with the next is a little blurb that states who made the widget and where it can be downloaded along with a link back to your website. If the widget takes off (in any respect), people can visit your website, download your widget, install it on their website and you’ve got another inbound link to your page. Multiply this by a hundred thousand or so for a successful widget and you may never have to think about link acquisition again.
- Everyone loves a good Contest or Giveaway, especially if they create buzz and bring more attention to your products or services. The best thing about this tactic to attract links to your website is that you can give away just about anything from money, to free products or services, to something generic and played out like an iPad. Yeah, that’s a pretty great gift to win in a contest, but let’s be honest, everyone is doing it. Even so, I wouldn’t mind winning one. One of the great things about these contests is that they spread quickly. Just a few minutes ago in fact, I received a Facebook message from someone asking me to vote for their son in this Smiles contest being held at the Fan Page for Sheri Lynn Photography. It’s the Smiles Photo Contest and this is the little guy I’m supposed to vote for. If his photo gets the most votes, his Mom will win a free $40 photo session. That’s not too much to give away, and definitely worth the cost when you consider how many new fans the page has since starting the contest.
More Paid Search Goodness
Janel Laravie also killed it in the Advanced Paid Search Tactics session and brought up a lot of really excellent ideas for streamlining your paid search campaigns. Personally, I’m not able to spend nearly as much time on paid search as I’d like, and so Janel’s insights were invaluable to me. She had some great suggestions for separating and streamlining campaigns between broad, phrase & exact match types. I haven’t been able to implement those yet but that and other ideas have lit the proverbial fire under my ass to start streamlining my paid search campaigns the way I’ve wanted to for years now.
Constructive Criticisms
This part is kind of funny, but not so much in a ha-ha sort of way. While I very much enjoyed the conference, of course there were some points of concern.
- Where’s the swag? I rushed to #SSSS on Monday morning so I could register and pick up my Swag, only to find that a) there was no formal registration and b) there was no swag. Did I get there late? Is 8:30AM late? What’s the deal? Where’s my special SSSS pen? Where’s my wrist band? Given the “spirit” of the conference, shouldn’t I at least get a custom shot glass or something? I’m not a swag hound or anything like that but the schedule DID say there’d be swag and, well… there just wasn’t.
- They called it “a special networking session” but I’m more inclined to believe it was a mistake in the organization of the schedule. So let’s run through this together. 12p-1p was lunch. 1p-2.15p was a session, which is usually followed by a half hour “networking break” and then another session. On both days, however, 2.15p was promptly followed by absolutely nothing until 3.45pm!! I don’t know about you but it’s confusing to have an hour break, a 75 minute session and then a 90 minute break! The idea of doing even more networking after all the networking we were already doing sure wasn’t something I got excited about. I know I wasn’t alone because it seemed like people were either deciding to go take a nice afternoon nap in their hotel rooms or spend their time “networking” with each other about the big mistake in the schedule. Food for thought.
And OH! The Networking!
Speaking of networking, I did have a great time meeting a lot of my peers in the Search Marketing landscape. Some people approached me, mentioning that they knew me from Twitter, and yeah, I was surprised. I didn’t know I was the kind of Twit you’d come out and notice, but it made me happy to know that some of the things I have to say are taken to heart. I met others like Kristin McLeod who didn’t know me from Adam, and now we talk regularly on Twitter. Still, there were others I met and forgot just as quickly, a single-serving-friend of sorts that lasted about the duration of a cigarette. I’ll remember their faces, though, and won’t hesitate to approach them the next time around.
One networking breakdown of mine took place when the esteemed Sugarrae called me out for sitting along “talking to the palm tree.” In my defense, I wasn’t talking to the palm tree. This was during one of those massive networking breaks. I didn’t have a hotel room to take a nap in, I was hot, tired, and thinking about the dryer I had to go pick out immediately after the festivities ended for the day. She called me out for being a wall-flower, then promptly called me over to sit with her and Michael Gray. Maybe I sound like a groupie, but I don’t care. What an honor. She and Michael were way too busy working on a different website but I was happy just to get to sit there and watch them work. I swear, I’d consider paying for that in the future. When that future comes, I’m definitely going to buy her a beer.
